Page 31 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

FORD

O n Monday morning when I arrived at the office, Lila wasn’t there. I asked around, but the only answer I got was, “She’s out in the field.”

I had no clue what that meant, though. Yesterday when I’d spoken to her, she’d told me she had homework to catch up on and I’d spent the day with my neighbors, continuing the storm cleanup. She hadn’t mentioned anything about having errands to run this morning or work to do out of the office.

Plus, as my assistant, she shouldn’t be “out in the field ” unless I was with her, and clearly, I wasn’t. Unsure of where she could be, I tried calling, but the phone rang and rang until finally I got her voicemail.

Rodrigo had called me late yesterday afternoon in a huff about something that had happened at Heritage House over the weekend. We’d set a meeting for this morning and I figured Lila might want to go with me, so I headed out early, half to search for her and half to drive out to the house.

Hot, muggy air hit me like a wall when I left our office building, sweat immediately starting to bead on my forehead.

I kept my eyes peeled for Lila on my way to my truck, but there was no sign of her pedaling down the street, perhaps just a little late for work.

She also wasn’t at the bike rack, fidgeting with something in her basket.

Even so, I kept a lookout for her as I drove away from our offices, wondering where the heck she’d gotten off to.

I didn’t find her, though. Resigning myself to going to the meeting alone, surprise trickled through me when I finally got to Heritage House and saw her bicycle leaning against the porch.

I frowned. She cycled all the way out here? What the fuck?

Immediately on guard, I wondered if Rodrigo had sent her an email or if maybe Eliza had called her over.

Hurrying inside and hoping like hell that they weren’t taking out their frustrations about whatever happened on her, I walked smack bang into an argument between her and Rodrigo.

Shocked to the core when I realized what was going on, I glanced between them and tried to get the full picture before I intervened.

“This is what Eliza wanted,” Lila was saying, hands on her hips and her chin slanted in defiance. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just change it.”

“You’re not in charge here,” he snapped, arms flying out to his sides. “I am, which means that I don’t need to take this from you.”

“Sir, Eliza has already approved the designs for the kitchen. We worked on them together and everything on there is precisely the way she wanted it to be.”

He scoffed. “Has your boss signed off on these?”

I cleared my throat to announce my presence and strode closer, still uncertain about what exactly the argument was about but ready to defend her if I had to.

“Her boss is right here. If she says something has been approved, then it’s been approved.

We’ll need to talk to your wife before we make any changes. ”

Rodrigo spun to face me, cheeks red and ruddy as his eyes narrowed to slits. “She’s my wife. I know what she wants and I’m telling you, we’re changing those designs.”

“Sure, just get her in here and we’ll discuss it,” I said calmly, glancing at Lila and silently checking in with her.

She’d gone as white as a sheet, her eyes a little wider than they should be. I stepped closer to her, needing her to know I was on her side. Even if I still didn’t really know what any of this was about.

Clearly, however, Rodrigo had had enough. He was seeing red, his voice raising an octave or two with every word he spat at me. “There’s storm damage to the new roof, Callahan. Do you know why? It’s because it’s only half completed. It’s not even done yet and it’s already caving in.”

“Nor was it supposed to have been complete yet,” I reasoned. “We’re still on schedule and whatever damage the storm caused, we’ll fix before we continue. It shouldn’t change the timetable.”

He turned another shade redder. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me.

We’re on schedule, but we’re not, and instead of focusing on the damage and how long it’s going to take to repair, this idiot of yours wants me to believe that my wife signed off on changes to the kitchen that I know nothing about. ”

I was used to dealing with overbearing clients.

It had happened time and time again, and it was no big deal, but having him target Lila was different.

Rising to my full height, I stared him down and arched an eyebrow.

I wouldn’t tolerate him treating her that way.

Not if he wanted CE to continue with this project.

“Apologize,” I insisted, my voice suddenly quiet in a dangerous way that I hadn’t been intending, but didn’t mind.

“You will not call her names. If you have a problem with designs that have been approved, it’s your wife you need to speak to, not my staff and we will not discuss any of it unless and until you apologize. ”

He glared at me, but it seemed he wasn’t about to stand his ground. Shaking his head, he scoffed and started moving backward. “We’re talk about this later.”

Spinning around, he stormed out of the house while Lila stood beside me, wide-eyed and clutching her tablet. Her head swung toward me, but she was still pale as hell and her jaw slackened as she stared up at me.

“Are you okay?” I asked as gently as I could. “Do you want to tell me what you’re doing here all by yourself?”

“I’m…” She trailed off for a beat, swiping her tongue across her lips before she sighed. “I’m fine. Thank you for asking. I guess I just wasn’t expecting to walk into such hostility.”

I studied the vaguely guilty look in her light blue eyes and instantly knew I’d missed something. “So what were you expecting to walk into?”

“Eliza asked me to come here today. It sounds like she got caught up somewhere and asked Rodrigo to come instead. He started getting rough with me pretty much as soon as he showed up.”

“She asked him to meet with you?” I asked. “Why? He wanted to talk to me about the storm damage, but she shouldn’t have involved you. Especially not without my knowledge.”

“It wasn’t about that.” She grimaced, her eyelids sliding shut.

“She asked me to be her interior designer, Ford. I haven’t told you about it yet because I haven’t felt like there’s been a right time to bring it up, but she knows I’m not done with school yet and she begged me to take the job.

I told her I had to talk to you first. I said I would have to find out if you’d let me be the designer while I’m also still your assistant.

Obviously, that’s more important to me.”

She kept going, opening her eyes again, but seemingly too afraid to look at me. “She and I talked a lot about her ideas for the house and I gave her some of mine, then she invited me out to lunch, which is why I was with her when you got hurt, but I haven’t given her a definite answer and?—”

She cut herself off, her head shaking as her gaze hit the floor. I’d never seen her look so down before, like she was genuinely scared of what I was going to say. How I was going to react.

Calmly leaning against the wall, I waited for her to finally take a glimpse at me before I responded. “I guess I should start paying you more, then. Since you’re no longer my assistant.”

She looked confused for a second. Her face fell, her mouth opening and her reddish eyebrows sliding together. “You’re firing me?—”

“Let me clarify,” I said quickly, realizing that she definitely hadn’t understood what I’d meant.

“You would be our first interior designer on staff at CE. So far, we’ve only been an engineering firm and we’ve been hiring out contractors for any other roles, but you’ll be on the books.

I’m not firing you. I’m hiring you. Just in a different position. A new position.”

Her head shook. “You… you don’t have to do that. It’s just this one client. I could freelance or even just do it for the experience and to use the designs for my project. I’ve already asked Eliza if I could use them and she’s fine with it.”

“Sure, but people like Rodrigo will prey on you, thinking they can boss you around and take advantage of your talent even if their wives are the ones who are actually calling the shots. I’ll feel better knowing that you’re going to get paid for the work you’re doing.”

Slowly sliding her eyes from one of mine to the other, her arms crossed over her chest. “Is this because we kissed?”

Ouch . It felt like a blow to the chest, but I shook my head, pushing away from the wall and stepping into her. “I kissed you because I wanted to. That’s all. And I want to hire you because you’re already good enough to be getting your own clients.”

For what I believed was probably the first time in her life, Lila was at a loss for words. She didn’t say anything though, which probably meant that she didn’t feel the same way.

It was another blow, but I took it in stride, locking myself down nice and tight when I realized I’d let this little infatuation of mine go too far.

In the last decade, I’d been living on emotional lockdown just like the one I was reaching for now, but even as I tried to shove all my emotions back into the cages I’d kept them in for so long, it felt strangely wrong.

In the past couple months since she’d come into my life, she’d unlocked things in me that I’d thought were long gone. She’d also helped me rediscover some of life’s simple pleasures, like joy in the midst of a thunderstorm and the comfort of casual conversation.

I didn’t want to go back to feeling like I had before. I didn’t want to go back to surviving from day to day, but not really living for anything other than survival.

Lila still hadn’t said a word, the expression in her eyes as confusing as her silence. Usually, I could read her pretty well, but right now, there was only uncertainty staring back at me. Perhaps a healthy dose of confusion of her own.

I opened my mouth to tell her that I wanted her. Knowing that I needed to let her know that I liked her and that it hadn’t just been a spur of the moment thing for me, I sorted through my thoughts and I’d just decided where to begin when my phone started ringing.

The sharp trilling of my ringtone sliced through the moment and ruined it absolutely. She spun away, but I couldn’t just ignore the call without even knowing who it was.

I slid my phone out of my back pocket and scowled at the screen as I slid my thumb across the green bar. “Jared, what do you need?”

“A Rodrigo Fierra called the office,” he said, sounding slightly amused, slightly worried. “He asked to speak to your superior.”

“What did he say when you told him that I was the superior?” I asked, but my gaze was on Lila’s back as she strode toward the front of the house and stared out the windows.

Jared chuckled. “Well, let’s just say that he was pretty upset. I really don’t think he realized that you’re the boss and the owner of the whole company.”

“Excuse me if I don’t feel sorry for him for not doing his due diligence,” I said. “Is that it?”

“That’s it. I thought you might want to know that he’s not too happy with you right now.”

“I already knew that. I’ll speak to you later.” I ended the call and slid the device back into my pocket just as Lila walked out the front door.

Clearly preparing to get on her bike for the long trek back to the city, she was putting her tablet back into her bag and tucking it into the basket when I joined her outside. Beating her to the punch, I picked up the bike before she could climb on it and carried it to my truck.

“Get in,” I said without looking at her as I carefully placed the bicycle on the back. “You’ll drive with me.”

She took a deep breath but didn’t argue, and something buried deep inside me exhaled with relief that she hadn’t fought me on this. Neither of us seemed to know how to break the ice that had suddenly grown between us, but at least now, I had the whole drive back to the city to figure it out.